Word: luba
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Presented as a series of reminiscences, The Lady and the Clarinet centers around the character of Luba (Elissa Forsythe), a woman unable to find happiness in her love life as she looks back at her three most important romantic involvements. The play begins with the entrance of the clarinet player (Darryl Durham), a musician whom Luba has hired to provide background music for a dinner date at her apartment. Throughout the play, the clarinet player functions as a low-budget, on-stage orchestra to help fill in the many slow moments. The musician also does double duty as a backdrop...
After an interminable period of forgettable bantering--to which the clarinet player says nothing but only smiles or nods occasionally--Luba confesses that there have really only been three men in her life, and we arrive at the meat of the play. As she begins to reminisce about Paul, the young man with whom she lost her virginity, the doorbell rings. Surprise, surprise: we are now witnessing a reenactment of the fateful event...
...seems wholly incapable of playing a teenager. The effect is somewhat ridiculous, as it appears that an adult woman is begging a self-conscious youth to initiate her into womanhood. In addition, the scene is so devoid of real emotion that by its conclusion one has to wonder why Luba has included Paul as one of the important men in her life...
...next lover in the lineup is Jack, a married man who is torn between his responsibilities to Luba, to his family, and to his job. Brian Howe injects the role with much needed energy and sincerity. Despite the patently absurd situation in which his character finds himself, Howe presents Jack as a highly believable and sympathetic fellow. He also is also very, very funny. Jack's outrageous telephone calls home are undeniably the high point of the play. In fact, Brian Howe truly outclasses the rest of the cast, not only in energy but also in his breadth of emotion...
WITHOUT SHEDDING TOO many tears, Jack finally leaves, as he inevitably must, since there is one more name on the bill, and we are presented with the story of Luba's marriage to George. Richard Snee has a difficult job in this role: to keep the audience awake in a play that has already run too long. He has a few things working for him--including strong delivery of a few funny lines--but a lot more working against him. The chief enemy of this scene is the dullness of the character; George is an older man whose only amusement...